Golf has exploded in popularity in recent years due to the pandemic and the popularity of the Netflix documentary series “Full Swing.” According to the National Golf Foundation, more than 531 million rounds of golf will be played in the United States in 2023 alone. With this increased interest, golfers are finding it increasingly difficult to secure tee times at public golf courses.
Loop Golf is trying to make this process easier by acting as a digital matchmaker: The company finds and books tee times for golfers whenever they become available, even if they become available in the middle of the night.
Users tell Loop Golf what tee time requirements they want to play, how much they want to pay, and how far they want to travel to get to the course. Loop Golf searches the internet and books any available tee times that fit their requirements. The company makes money by taking a 10% commission on each booking.
Matt Holder, founder and CEO of Loop Golf, told TechCrunch that he knows this problem firsthand: Most golf courses only allow golfers to book up to seven days in advance, meaning competition for tee times is always fierce. He told TechCrunch that he decided to launch Loop Golf because he couldn't stand this frustrating process any more and knew he wasn't the only one feeling the same way.
“I was staying up late combing through a bunch of websites trying to find a place to play,” Holder told TechCrunch. “I was looking at different options and spending hours doing multi-faceted problem solving to find a place for myself and my group to play. Eventually I got tired of it. My wife definitely got tired of it. There had to be a better way.”
Matt Holder is the founder and CEO of Loop Golf. Courtesy of Loop Golf.
Holder built Loop Golf using his background in product management at several marketplace startups, including Houzz, CarGurus, and Autolist (acquired by CarGurus). Though it's similar to a marketplace, Holder says Loop Golf is a little different because it's more of a concierge service. Instead of users scrolling through options to select a course, the platform uses a “secret sauce” software layer to automatically track, find, and book tee times for users.
“Customers can set their preferences in 30 seconds, rather than spending hours searching,” Holder said. “We find and book tee times for them, giving them more opportunities to play golf.”
The startup currently has more than 3,000 public courses on its platform, including more than half of Golf Digest's top 100 public courses. The startup recently raised $1 million in a seed round led by Jason Karkanis' LAUNCH Fund, with participation from XST Capital Group, Friends and Family Capital, SparkOffer and The Rideshare Guy. Holder said Loop Golf approached Harry Campbell of The Rideshare Guy after noticing that Campbell was an early adopter who was driving up bookings on the platform.
Holder said the company could have raised more capital with this round but decided against it because it didn't want to raise more than it needed and give up excess company capital to do so, adding that the AI development tools saved the company time and money by eliminating the need to hire a large team.
“I think it really comes down to the dynamics of the capital you need to grow,” Holder said. “We're not a very capital-intensive business to scale. I think our margins are very high. Do you want to raise, say, $10 million-plus? Yeah, that's great. But at the same time, you have to balance dilution with your ability to deploy capital.”
Most golf courses are unaware they are using the Loop Golf platform, but the startup is starting to partner with them, and he hopes to entice them to do so by pointing out that up to 20% of bookings have been canceled and Loop Golf is helping courses fill gaps.
Holder said that as Loop Golf grows, it will become an even more important resource for golf courses: As its user base expands, the startup will have a database of information about golf courses, including how much people are willing to pay for tee times and which days of the week and times of day are most popular.
Loop Golf isn't the only startup trying to tackle the problem of finding a tee time. Noteefy is similarly trying to help golfers find tee times, but it's coming at it from a different angle, in that it works with the golf courses themselves and offers other services, like revenue tracking. There are other golf-focused startups that are raising funding: GolfForever, a startup that builds at-home golf training systems, has raised $10 million in venture money; golf accessories company Swag Golf has also raised $10 million.
Loop Golf launched in beta in December and is now fully operational, with Holder saying the company is already seeing users booking two to three times a month and a 100% increase in total monthly revenue.
“We're on pace to have demand for tea times in the millions over the next 12 months,” Holder said, “within limited activity. So we're really excited to take all the training wheels off and see just how big this demand can grow.”